The basis of color preferences in gender is not biological. Study tells that before 1920s, in the Western side of the world, the children of both sexes wore white. Whereas in England, light blue was traditionally a color for baby girls and light red was for baby boys. Blue color is associated to Virgin Mary. (See image 1.1)
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| Image 1.1. Virgin Mary wearing blue |
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| Image 1.2. Boy wearing pink |
In 1918, the Ladies’ Home Journal mentioned that the reason for pink being a color for boys is because it is a more decided and stronger color while blue is for girls because it is more delicate and dainty that makes it prettier for girls. (See image 1.2) Some reasons were due to how people saw color in previous decades. Red was seen as an aggressive color and a symbol of blood that referred to masculinity.
The association of gender to color became universally accepted in the 1940s clarifying that there is no biological reference to this color and clothing convention because in the early days boys who wore pink were the tough men who went to war and mines. The color association to gender was reversed in the late 1940s, the assignment of blue for boys and pink for girls. There has been no generalized rule after that when the color preference came from cultures and evolved tremendously throughout the centuries until today.
As for today’s world of fashion, creativity and imagination has no end. Therefore, any color can be associated to any gender depending on what is the purpose of the clothing or what message is to be delivered to the audience often relating to a social group or sub-cultures. (See image 2.1 and 2.2)
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| Image 2.1. Positivism: Man wearing pink for Breast Cancer campaign |
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| Image 2.2. Sub-Cultures |
However, more emphasis in children’s color preferences is always pink for girls and blue for boys. (See image 3)
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| Image 3. Blue for baby boys - Pink for baby girls |
Today color association has built-in a negative or wrong impact about genders, relating them to homosexuals. Boys wearing pink are often predicted as being less feminine. This is a perfect example of Symbolic Interaction, that people experience and interpret through other's reactions and therefore respond under influence. (See image 4)
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| Image 4. Wearing pink makes men gay? |
Works Cited:
http://people.howstuffworks.com/gender-color1.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/aug/25/genderissues
